A Popular Pastry
Spandauer are a very popular Danish pastry, and you can find multiple kinds of spandauer in every bakery in Denmark. Spandauer is a name that comes from the name of a part of Berlin, called Spandau. Apparently, there was a prison there in 19th and 20th centuries that had four towers and walls all around it, which is why this pastry has four corners and walls around the custard or jam.
While “Spandauer” doesn’t have a direct English translation, these are what Americans call “Danishes,” although in Denmark you will never find one of these filled with cheese (lol, sorry America). And the funny thing is that in Denmark, we call these pastries “wienerbrød,” or “Vienna bread,” because Austrian bakers were actually the first to bring the pastries and new baking methods to Denmark.
Pastry Dough Basics
Spandauer are circular pastries, consisting of a yeasted, laminated dough filled with marzipan filling (remonce), and topped with a dollop of cream or jam. The dough is not easy to make, but once you master it, you will be able to make a multitude of other Danish pastries! Other pastry recipes on our blog that use this type of dough include tebirkes, kanelsnegle, frøsnapper, chokoladesnegle, and wienerbrødsstang.
We now have two pastry dough recipe on our website: the 6 hour faster version and the original, overnight proofing version! Either one is delicious, and while laminating dough is a bit of a project, it’s a great activity for the weekend!
Lamination
So, what does “laminated dough” mean? You start with making a regular yeasted dough, similar to what you would use to bake fødselsdagsboller or kanelsnegle. Depending on if you are making the faster version or the overnight version, you let the dough rise at room temperature or in the fridge. Then, you roll that dough out into a square, place a block of butter in the middle, and fold in the corners of the dough so that the butter is enclosed.
Then begins the lamination. You roll the dough out into a rectangle and complete a letter fold. Think of your dough as being split into thirds, then fold top over middle, bottom over top. You repeat this rolling out and letter fold process two more times (three total). This gives you 27 layers in your dough, making the final pastry flaky and buttery.
Tips to a Successful Pastry Bake
Many things can go wrong in this recipe, so don’t worry if your final product doesn’t turn out perfect. It’ll still be delicious! The biggest problem we face when making these pastries is the butter leaking out when we bake them. This is not great because it results in large gaps in the pastry where the butter has leaked out. The pastries also sit in a pool of butter and often come out fried on the bottom and far too greasy.
Type of Butter
So, a few tips to avoid this! First, we would recommend using a European butter with a higher fat percentage. European butter contains less water, and will be easier to work with and more elastic than American butter. This helps with rolling the dough out without it causing you problems, like breaking apart in the dough. However, if this is too expensive, you can try American style butters – just know that it may be more difficult and may cause leakage of the butter!
You also want to make sure that your butter is not too cold when you enclose it in the dough. This could cause leakage problems later on, because when you roll it out, the butter may break up and you won’t have smooth sheets of butter between your layers of dough. So, carefully follow the butter folding step on our pastry dough recipes to help with this!
Proofing the Pastries
Finally, proofing is super important in the process of avoiding butter leakage. Under-proofed or over-proofed pastries will leak butter, so you need to get it as close to perfect as possible. We like to go by look instead of timing, but you should give them at least 2 hours. The pastries should double in size and be almost wobbly when you touch them. Our recipe below includes more info, but pay close attention to these steps if you want the perfect Danish pastry! If you make our recipe, be sure to leave a comment and a rating below! And tag us on Instagram if you post a photo!
Watch Our Video
We made a full length video on how to make Spandauer, and you can watch it below! This video doesn’t include the lamination of the pastry dough, but you can watch the Danish pastry dough video here. If you like visual cues and demonstrations, definitely give both videos a watch!
Spandauer (Danish Pastry with Custard or Jam)
Ingredients
PASTRY DOUGH
- 1 portion wienerbrødsdej (danish pastry dough) *or you can use the easier recipe below! You only need one portion, so choose one to use!!
- OR 1 portion "easier" wienerbrødsdej (danish pastry dough)
REMONCE (MARZIPAN FILLING)
- 100 grams marzipan *our recipe makes 250 grams, so you can adjust accordingly!
- 50 grams softened, unsalted butter
- 50 grams granulated sugar
TOPPING
- 1 portion kagecreme and/or *if you're making half of the spandauer pastry cream and half of them jam, you will only need a half portion! You can adjust accordingly, or just eat the pastry cream as dessert 🙂
- 1 portion raspberry jam *use storebought jam if you like! any flavor is fine!
- 1 egg for egg wash
ICING (OPTIONAL)
- Powdered sugar *we don't measure this and just fill a bowl with powdered sugar to create our icing!
- A little bit of water
Instructions
- The night before baking, begin preparing the pastry dough by following the steps in our wienerbrødsdej recipe. Or, you can make the dough the same day, and use our easier version!
- You can also make your marzipan, kagecreme, and raspberry jam a day ahead of time to make sure they are chilled. You can do this the day of as well!
- The next day or after the dough is done rising, follow the lamination instructions in the danish pastry dough recipe.
- While your dough is resting between folds, mix the ingredients for your marzipan filling (softened butter, sugar, marzipan – leave at room temp to soften!). Mix together really well, until you have a smooth paste.
- Once you have completed all the laminations according to the wienerbrødsdej recipe and the dough has rested, start rolling out your dough on a well floured surface, being gentle. If you get any tears in the dough, add some flour to the spot! When it's around 16" in length, cut it in half and wrap one half in plastic wrap and put it back in the fridge. It's much easier to work with half of the dough at a time.
- Roll the remaining half of your dough into a flat rectangle that is about 1/8-1/4 inch thick.
- Trim the edges of your rectangle; it should measure 12" in length and 8" in width.
- Cut the dough into six equal sized squares. You can use the trimmed dough from the edges and make them into little swirls or croissant shapes and bake them with the pastries if you want!
- Add a small blob of marzipan filling to each of your squares. Keep in mind that you will use half of the marzipan filling for this half of the dough, so reserve the second half for the other part of the dough!
- Then fold each corner towards the center, using the marzipan to lock it in place. If you need to add water to the top of the dough to make the corners stick, you can do that!
- You should be left with a square looking pastry! Transfer the pastries to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. We do use two baking sheets for this recipe.
- Cover the first batch of pastries, either with plastic wrap or a damp dish towel, and let them start proofing.
- Repeat the rolling out of the dough and the shaping steps with the other half of the dough. Transfer to a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap.
- Now leave your shaped pastries to rise for at least 2 hours, perhaps longer. They should be very puffy and jiggly!
- Look at the difference between the previous picture and the picture below! This is a very important step, because under-proofing these means major butter leakage (we are speaking from experience!). You'll know the pastries are ready when they feel super light and airy (almost wobbly when you touch them) and have doubled in size. Another test is to poke the dough, and if it leaves an impression and doesn't spring back immediately, it should be ready.
- Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 C).
- Once your pastries have risen, egg wash the first baking sheet that you prepared.
- Press down the center of the pastries to make room for about a tablespoon's worth of filling.
- Add about a tablespoon of kagecreme or raspberry jam to the center of each pastry
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes on the center rack, until golden brown! We bake these one at a time, since we prepare the dough one half at a time anyway. So while the first baking sheet is in the oven, prepare the second baking sheet by repeating the egg wash, pressing down the center, and adding the topping.
- When the first batch comes out of the oven, put in the second baking sheet for another 15-20 minutes, and bake until golden brown. Place the pastries on a cooling rack and let cool completely.
- Mix together icing sugar and water until you have a thick icing. Ice around the edges of the pastry. Enjoy!
Just to add: Spandau is a district of Berlin, Germany. So the origin story of “Spandauer” might not be far off the one for “Vienna Bread”. In German, these pastries are called “Plunder”, which, in the modern use, can also mean junk 😀 There’s a distinguishing between German plunder and Scandinavian or Danish plunder.
Btw., in Germany, there’s also a pastry called Berliner (or Berliner Pfannkuchen, i.e. Berlin pancake), which is like a doughnut without the hole, filled with jam.
That’s really interesting – I didn’t know that! I’ve just Googled it and it sounds like Danish spandauer are named after the prison in Spandau in Berlin because the four corners of the pastry are like the four towers of the prison. How strange! Thanks for this info, I love learning new things about pastries and their names 🙂
If you incorporate (mix) 10% flour with the butter block, it will help eliminate the leakage during baking.
Interesting tip! I’ve never heard of that. I will have to give it a try next time I make these!!
Incredible good and honest recipe. We make them this way and they are always perfect. Two outstanding Danish American chefe! Very many thanks.
Thank you for this lovely comment!! We really appreciate your support 🙂
Hi girls, I would like to bring these in for an office breakfast. Whats the best time of timing this so they are pretty fresh? I can allocate 1 afternoon, one late evening, and an early wake-up if necessary.
I was thinking of making winerbrodsdej and putting it in the fridge around midnight, the next day after lunch laminating it and shaping it with marzipan, putting it in fridge around 6 pm, wake up 3am, take out for one hour putting the custard/jam and bake, cool and go to work. Would this work you think?
Hi! Yes, I think that sounds like a good plan. If your fridge is really cold then you might want to give it two hours at room temperature in the morning (although I know that means an earlier wake-up time, sorry 😬 ) – hope that helps! Let us know how it goes 🙂
What’s fantastic about this pastry is its versatility. Whether you prefer the richness of custard or the fruity sweetness of jam, each variation offers its own unique appeal, making it a crowd-pleaser for various taste preferences. The artistry of the pastry, with its delicate folds and enticing fillings, makes it a standout treat for any occasion – be it a leisurely breakfast, a midday snack, or a delightful dessert paired with a cup of coffee or tea.
These were delicious! It was my first attempt at anything like this and they turned out great, I used homemade orange curd and blackberry jam for my toppings and the whole family loved them. I followed the recommendations and it was such a fun a recipe to make. I had set my bar low knowing how easily these can fail and I am beyond excited that they not only look (mostly) correct but they taste great too!
Ok first of all that sounds delicious! Orange curd and blackberry jam…wow that sounds so good. And I’m so glad they turned out well, these pastries can definitely be tricky sometimes but they are so satisfying when they turn out beautiful and delicious. Thanks for using our recipe and leaving this lovely comment – we really appreciate it 🙂